Pinckney prevails, residency challenge fails

Jeffrey Collins/The Associated Press Challenger Leilani Bessinger, right, talks to a supporter during a break in a hearing protesting state Sen. Clementa Pinckney's re-election in Columbia on Tuesday. The State Election Commission unanimously turned down Bessinger's protest.

Jeffrey Collins/The Associated Press State Sen. Clementa Pickney, left, answers questions from his Republican challenger for re-election, Leilani Bessinger, right, during a hearing protesting the November election in Columbia on Tuesday. The State Election Commission unanimously turned down Bessinger's protest.

COLUMBIA — Sen. Clementa Pinckney said he grew up in the Lowcountry Senate district, playing tee-ball and learning values, and has no plans to leave. But a career as a Methodist minister takes him regularly to Charleston, and around and outside the state.

The Ridgeland Democrat testified to that and other details of his personal and professional life Tuesday, maintaining that he, indeed, lives in Senate District 45.

The South Carolina State Election Commission couldn’t be swayed otherwise. The panel voted 5-0 in the lawmaker’s favor, after the Beaufort Republican who lost to him in the Nov. 6 election had claimed Pinckney did not live in the district.

In her complaint, Leilani Bessinger had targeted Pinckney, the S.C. Democratic Party, its Jasper County counterpart and chairman Arthur Murphy, and the Jasper County Board of Elections and Voter Registration.

The Democratic lawmaker was elected to the S.C. House in 1996 and the Senate in 2000.

“Methodist means traveling,” said Pinckney, 39, adding that he is involved in eight major conferences around the state per year.

He is currently a minister at a 1,000-member African Methodist Episcopal church in downtown Charleston. The lawmaker said he had once rented an apartment in Charleston through the church but gave it up.

Tuesday’s three-hour hearing examined where, precisely, the lawmaker considers his home. At issue was whether it’s his childhood home at 171 Sunset Ave. or another family home, 233 Cross Creek, where he has lived the last few years. Pinckney moved from the former to the latter amid renovation work on the Sunset property.

The homes are about two-and-a-half miles apart in Ridgeland.

On election day, Pinckney won 66 percent to Bessinger’s 34 percent. The district covers Jasper County, the bulk of Allendale and Hampton counties, southern Beaufort County, and parts of Colleton and Charleston counties.

Bessinger, representing herself during Tuesday’s three-hour hearing, took issue with the way the lawmaker lives.

“I just want to know that any person that files for this seat has a vested interest in being a senator and a representative for us, that their children attend our schools, that they own property, own a home, reside there, work there, if possible,” Bessinger told the commission.

The law does not require someone to be a property owner in order to vote or run for office. Also unspecified in election law: Where a candidate’s child attends school and a candidate’s place of employment or even employment status.

Bessinger also questioned how Pinckney could serve his constituents when he was traveling so much, and why Pinckney’s wife and children live in Lexington County.

She also disapproved of the lawmaker’s claim to pay family members $150 per month to help with expenses in the Ridgeland home where he lives.

“At some point, you have to pay your way,” she said.

Pinckney, married since 1999, said his wife is a school teacher in Aiken County and has a home in Lexington with the couple’s two children. He said his wife’s elderly parents live there, and his wife cares for them. At Bessinger’s probing, the lawmaker said he and his wife are not legally separated but have never lived together.

“It’s a matter of service,” said Pinckney. “I feel very strongly about my service to the Senate.” He said his public life is “an extension of my ministry.”

But Bessinger wanted more details about their marital life. Commission chairman Billy Way pressed her to explain the relevance of the inquiry, as he had asked her at various times during the hearing.

Among 18 people Bessinger had subpoenaed, Murphy, S.C. Democratic Party executive director Amanda Loveday, and Jeanine Bostick, the county elections director, were among those who showed up. Among those who did not: Aiken County Public School District superintendent Beth Everitt.

In an effort dubbed harassment by Pinckney’s lawyer, Bessinger had tried to subpoena the lawmaker’s cell phone records and his taxes dating back to 2008, along with his family members’ tax records.

After the commission hearing, Bessinger said she was disappointed with the decision and would consider appealing it to the entire Senate.